wisely laid down the rule that the first act of worship should be a short public prayer rather than a private one. I worshipped lately in a church in the North of England where this was done, and to me it appeared to be most becoming and suitable for the minister, as the commencement of worship, very shortly to invoke the Divine blessing. The passage in the "Directory" is as follows:

"When the congregation is to meet for public worship, the people (having before prepared their hearts thereunto) ought all to come and join therein; not absenting themselves from the public ordinances through negligence, or upon pretence of private Meetings. Let all enter the assembly, not irreverently, but in a grave and heavenly manner, taking their seats or places without adoration, or bowing themselves towards one place or

other.

"The congregation being assembled, the minister, after solemn calling on them to the worshipping of the great name of God, is to

un

begin with prayer, In all reverence and humility acknowledging the incomprehensible greatness and majesty of the Lord (in whose presence they do then in a special manner worthiness to approach so near Him, with appear), and their own vileness and their utter inability of themselves to do so great a work; and humbly beseeching Him for pardon, assistance, and acceptance, in the whole service then to be performed; and for a blessing on that particular portion of His Word then to be read; and all in the name and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ.""

I do not wish to alarm the most fastidious by pointing out other improvements or alterations in order to make our worship more attractive or impressive, but will rest satisfied, in the meantime, by suggesting that, in the propriety of which I feel assured all must concur, and in the hope that it will be universally adopted.

I am, dear Sir, yours, &c.,
AN ELDER.

CORFU.

"To begin with the school, I am pleased to inform you, that since the Passover our number of girls has greatly increased. During the whole of last and this month we have had as many as fifty every day; generally, fifty-five are present; so that we may have sixty on our list. All the three teachers are very diligent, and their scholars are making satisfactory progress. Those who may be from six to eight years of age are able to read; a good many are not above four years old, and these are taught in as simple and interesting a manner as we could desire. The more advanced girls are from nine to thirteen years of age, but of these we have only six or seven; the parents remove them when their attainments need to be confirmed, as they are early put to work, that they may assist in the maintaining of families usually numerous. We hope that the knowledge of the Word of God which they have acquired before they leave the school will not be lost, nor return to Him void;' though it is sad not to be aware of any who, having passed through our school, have had their convictions formed, from reading in the New Testament, that Jesus is the Christ. But truly our work is with our God, and, by

His blessing, what we have done may smooth the way for the reception of the Gospel by the generation to whom these girls may be mothers. This is, I believe, the most we may expect from such schools. I am present in the school for a short time almost every day, and on Thursday we have usually some lady to hear the weekly examination. I cannot say how thankful I am that we have such a well-aired school-room; it is capacious enough to hold seventy children, and is also more attractive during the heat to the soldiers who come to the evening service.

"I find it generally requires almost a year to become acquainted and to draw out to our evening service, or to a class, a few who form a nucleus to others. Our prayer meeting on the Tuesday evening, at which I lecture from the 119th Psalm, is better attended than formerly; and on the Lord'sday evening, when we meet at half-past seven, the room is about as well filled as it ought to be during the hot weather. I shall endeavour to keep up this service every Sabbath evening if possible, as it allows the soldier to withdraw himself from the temptations of the town, and gives at the same time an opportunity of attending to such of the married women as cannot conveniently get out in the morning. Very few of the women of the 71st come at any time. .

"It is a very sad affair for the Scotch

to me.

regiments that they are usually stationed in Ireland before coming out here. They get married to Roman Catholics, and so perpetuate evils which several generations may not remove; this is one source of difficulty I cannot have all the children capable of attending the Sabbath-school under my care; but I am glad to say that I have a very nice little Sabbath-school every Lord's-day, immediately after the morning service; this is one of my most delightful duties. . . . I am not without hope that a few of the young men will come to my preparatory class for next communion. Our last communion was on the 7th of May; very few came forward to the Lord's-table, but to the few who did, as well as to myself, I trust it was a time of refreshing. The same day, at five p.m., I dispensed the sacrament to three Italians who had expressed a desire for it, and with whom I kept up a preparation service for several weeks, and do keep it up still, every Lord's-day at the same hour. We were just in sufficient number to plead the promised blessing, and hope we obtained it. Mr. and Mrs. Campbell were the only other persons present. There are very few Italians now in Corfu. The Lombards, with very few exceptions, were amnestied on the event of their young Emperor's marriage. Those from the Neapolitan and Roman States are very friendly with me; most of them have the Scriptures, and I hope read them, but I have not the pleasure of meeting them, save individually, owing to the fear of losing their means of subsistence and the difficulties into which their friends at home may be brought. Jesuitism cannot assail them directly, but it has many ways of persecuting the poor exiles indirectly. A very slight acquaintance with them is sufficient to show that their anti-Papal sentiments are as strong as ever. . . . In addition to my other occupations, I have been throughout the last winter visitor to the Ladies' Society for clothing the poor, of which Lady Ward is patroness.

About

a fortnight ago the Chief Rabbi returned my visit, and we had a long conversation of nearly two hours; he impressed me with the conviction that he is a person of natural kindness of heart; he is, however, a thorough Jew. At several turns of the conversation I tried what I could to bring on a friendly discussion, but he seemed to be much on the watch against my drift, and always evaded debateable points with a dexterity peculiar to a Jew ;-while the aim is to evade, it is accomplished in such a way as to hide the evasion. He wishes me to visit his school, which I intend to do in a few days. I have but few adult Jews coming to me at present; two of them, who understand a little English, come to

the Tuesday evening prayer meeting, and one of them carries a Hebrew New Testament constantly in his pocket. Gaspero, the Italian for whom I have baptized two children, has been instrumental in making this youth, for the present at least, an earnest inquirer, through books and conversation; this argues well for Gaspero."

CHINA.

SOME of our readers will remember, that in a former number we stated, that it was believed the leader of the Chinese insurgents, now known as Tai-Ping-Hwang, at one time received instruction in the truths of the Gospel from the Rev. Mr. Roberts, an American missionary. This now appears to be correct. Some time ago Mr. R. received a letter from his old pupil, a translation of which has appeared in the "Overland China Mail," and is as follows:

Though it is long since we parted, yet I constantly cherish a remembrance of you. Now that the grateful breezes of spring salute men, while distant, I have thought of you, my venerated elder brother. It is indeed praiseworthy that you have traversed myriads of leagues of ocean, to publish the true doctrines of the Redeemer, and that you with all your heart serve the Lord. I respectfully make known to you, that notwithstanding my unworthiness and incapacity, the Heavenly Father has not cast me off, but in the fulness of His grace, has enabled me to obtain possession of the extensive region embraced in the Liang Hu and Kiang-nan (i.e., Hunan, Hupih, Nganhwui, and Kiang-su). I have written to you several times, but have yet received no answer to my letters.

public affairs engaging my attention, I have "In consequence of the multiplicity of not had leisure to instruct (the people) morning and evening. But I have promulgated the ten commandments to the army and the rest of the population, and have taught them all to pray morning and evening. Still those who understand the Gospel send the messenger are not many. Therefore I deem it right to -* in person to wish you peace, and to request you, my elder brother, if you are not disposed to abandon me, to (come and) bring with you many brethren to help to promulgate the Gospel, and administer the ordinance of baptism. So we shall obtain the true doc

trine.

"Hereafter, when my enterprise is successfully terminated, I will disseminate the doctrine throughout the whole empire, that all may return to the one Lord, and worship only the true God. This is what my

The name purposely left blank.-ED. O. C. M.

heart truly desires. I refrain from alluding to other matters than the above, and say no more at present.

"Wishing you happiness, I am, your humble servant,*

"HUNG SIU-TSIUEN.

"Over the name is stamped a large seal, about two inches square, with the following six Chinese characters, in the old seal character:-Tien Tieh, Tai Ping Hwang Yin, | i.e., the seal of Tien Teh and Tai Ping Hwang."+

During a recent visit of the Bishop of Victoria to Canton, he was visited by Leang Afa, the first Chinese convert. The Bishop writes:-" Old Leang Afa spent yesterday two hours with me. He speaks very humbly of himself, and wept tears of joy at the mention of his tracts distributed among the literati twenty years ago within the city, his own subsequent flight and persecution, and the recent movement of TaePing-Wang. He looks very hopefully upon the movement, and says that the leader, with all his errors, is a sincere believer: | that the Tartars have always been the enemies of God and his Gospel; and that he believes God will make the whole matter tend to the advancement of His kingdom. When we separated, he knelt down, and poured forth his heart in fervent prayer aloud for a rich blessing upon China and the insurgent leaders, whom he evidently regards as raised up by God for the accomplishment of great ends in China."

issionary #ummary.

In ancient times the Athenian State maintained a "sacred galley," for the performance, once a year, of a stately religious ceremonial. That service rendered, she lay ashore, a useless though dignified part of ecclesiastical machinery. In our days a Christian Society maintains a vessel far more worthy of the name of "sacred" than the old tenant of the Piræus. At this hour there sails in the Pacific Ocean a little ship belonging to the London Missionary Society, which is constantly engaged in the active service of the Prince of Peace. Most vessels sail in search for gain, and many are destined for war; but this "sacred galley" glides through the blue waters, touching at one fair isle after another,

Lit., your ignorant younger brother HUNG SIU-FSIEUN salutes you.

Or may not the meaning be, the Tai-ping Emperor of the Tien-teh Empire ?

freighted only with the message of salvation. She carries missionaries to their spheres of labour, or on their tours of inspection. She is a royal vessel, for she bears the ambassadors of the great King; she is a ship of war, and her one weapon is the "sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God."

We gladly extract the substance of a part of a journal letter from the commander of this interesting vessel :—

The anchor

We left Sidney on the 13th October, and arrived at Auriteum, one of the New Hebrides, on the 22d. dropped off the Mission station, where the Rev. J. Geddie is labouring with much success. We landed his supplies, with 3,000 copies of Mark's Gospel-the first whole copy which has been printed in this language. On Monday took on board our teachers and their wives, with the natives we had left here on our way to Sidney. Next day sailed to the Rev. Mr. Inglis' station on the north side of the island. Here we found the people, with smiling faces, desirous of shaking men, women, and children, all waiting hands. Twelve or thirteen years ago we found these people all barbarous, and could not in safety trust our lives among them. Now there is not one we may not feel safe with. What has God done by his Gospel for this people! Some days after we made sail for Erromanga, anchored in Dillon's bay, and found our teachers well. They had erected a small place of worship, besides dwelling-houses. We went on shore and held divine worship, being permitted to serve God in peace and safety on the spot where a few years ago our beloved missionaries, Williams and Harris, fell under the clubs of savages. On returning from worship we found on the beach the chief who killed Mr. Williams. He went on board with us. We asked him why he killed our missionary; he said, that white men had killed his relatives, and that he did not know anything about him."

In this manner we might follow the Gospel ship from island to island, to learn everywhere of triumphs already won by the cross, or of people waiting in hope for the day of their merciful visitation.*

A great work has begun in the different provinces of the Turkish empire. Thirty-five years ago the American Board of Missons began operations in those "lands of the Bible," from which its light and truth had departed. Great obstacles were encountered, and for some

time little progress made. The sowingtime was with tears, the harvest-day is dawning with joy. It is with feelings of singular interest that we hear of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus causing awakenings in places, the names of which are familiar to every reader of the Bible. From Constantinople to Mosul, and from Caucasus and Ararat to Lebanon, Christian agencies have been extended by the American Board. By the noble zeal of our American brethren a staff of 136 male and female missionary labourers has been formed and set in operation. But a single glance at the vast field over which they are spread, will show that they are quite insufficient "to go up and possess the land." From all quarters the cry comes, for more men to work in this great enterprise. Already 200 places are known to contain Protestants: in fifty of them there are stated congregations, with 100 Bible classes. During the last twenty years the American Mission has circulated Bibles, tracts, and books to the extent of 109 million pages. They have issued 700 translations of tracts and other works in the various languages spoken through the Turkish dominions. John Bunyan is now speaking with many tongues in the home of allegory; and the "Dairyman's Daughter has been the means of introducing the Gospel into Nicomedia. At Sidon, a little chapel is well filled with an attentive audience, discussions on Bible truths are frequent; and the movement has extended to Tyre, as well as the mountain

villages above Sidon. The dew has again descended on Hermon, and a much-tried community of believers there begins to flourish. At Beyrout, on the coast, and Abeih, in Lebanon, there are training-schools for young men and women, as well as attentive congregations. We have before spoken in praise of the American training Institutions at Bebek and Haskeny, near Constantinople.

Attached to the Syrian branch there are twelve Americans, two of whom are physicians; also a printer, four native preachers, and one native helper. The Armenian branch extends over Asia Minor, Armenia Proper, and Roumelia. For this wide region there are only twelve missionaries, one of whom is a physician; six native preachers, and twenty-four native helpers. At Constantinople itself, there are, besides six missionaries, four native preachers, and six assistants. The Assyrian branch has five missionaries, one of whom is a physician, and three native helpers. Its principal stations are Mosul and Diarbekr, where the inquirers are numerous.

The American Board has this year voted 14,000l. for carrying on the Missions in Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, and Assyria. A large sum in itself, and a noble proof of the liberality of American Christians. Yet how small, compared with the work to which it is devoted;how insignificant, compared with the expenditure of the world on its pride, its ambition, or its pleasures.

Vestiges of Divine Vengeance; or, the Dead Sea, and the Cities of the Plain. By W. E. TAYLER, Author of " 'Hippolytus, and the Christian Church," &c., &c. London: Wertheim and Macin

tosh.

THE origin of Mr. Tayler's work cannot be better stated than in his own words :-"The recent extraordinary discoveries of F. de Sauley, a French savant, have invested the subject of the Dead Sea with unwonted interest. Unfortunately, however, the narrative which he has published lies scattered over two huge octavo volumes,-in which the total absence of all order, and the entire deficiency of chapters, render it

almost impossible to find what is sought for without reading the whole."

Under these circumstances, the Author conceived that he would be rendering a service to the public by publishing the present work, which treats of the whole subject of the Dead Sea and the Cities of the Plain, embracing the fullest particulars of the important discoveries of De Sauley, and a careful estimate of their real value.

Unfortunately, however,-more unfortu nate, we imagine, for F. de Saulcy, than for the object of Mr. Tayler,-the ruins, supposed by the former to be identical with those of the destroyed cities, have been declared, by a more recent and less imagi

native explorer, to be the production of the Frenchman's own fancy. The statements of Lieutenant Von de Velde require further confirmation, as much as those of De Sauley. In the meantime, however, they have been received by the majority of the public press, as fully establishing the fact, that where F. de Sauley describes the site of the ruined cities, no such ruins exist.

Independent of this, however, Mr. Tayler's book is well worthy of a perusal. Some of his own arguments, drawn from the Bible narrative, in support of De Saulcy's discoveries, unless actual discovery fully prove that such discoveries are merely a dream, cannot we think be easily overthrown.

And even should the ruins which the French savant discovered, or fancied he had, turn out to be nothing of the kind, still Mr. Tayler's reasoning, that the cities must have been situated somewhere in the localities pointed out by De Sauley, remains untouched, and can only be set aside by the discovery of the sites of the five cities somewhere else.

Mr. Tayler gives also a very good compendium of the history of the Dead Sea and its explorers. Altogether, we cordially recommend the volume to the attention of our readers.

Poor Paddy's Cabin; or, Slavery in Ireland. By an IRISHMAN. Third EdiLondon: Wertheim and Mac

tion.

intosh. 1854. WHEN a book has reached a third edition, the labours of the critic are to a great extent superfluous. The public have testified their approbation of the above work by the rapid sale that has called for three editions in something less than eighteen months. As the title indicates, and as the author states in his preface, "the plan and general character" of the book have been suggested by Mrs. Stowe's very popular work, "Uncle Tom's Cabin." By way of calling the attention of our readers to the book as one both instructive and amusing, while we believe it is eminently calculated to be useful in opening men's eyes to the cruelties of the soul-enslaving system that paralyses Irish intelligence and skill-a system that benumbs by its very touch all that come into contact with it- -we give the following extract, which will serve as a specimen of the book. It describes an encounter between Paddy and the priest after he had renounced Romanism :

"You're welcome, your Reverence,' said Paddy, taking off his hat.

"Thank you, Paddy,' said the priest; but what book is that in your hand?' said he, looking at Paddy suspiciously.

"Oh! a good book, your Reverence,' said Paddy, holding it up before him.

"Why, Paddy, that is the Bible you have got, isn't it?' said the priest in a tone of angry surprise.

"Why, then, it is, your Reverence.' "And do you think you understand that book, you foolish man?' said the priest.

"Why, then, what I understands of it, your Reverence, does me good, and what I doesn't understand, does me no hurt. I understand more and more of it every day.'

"I tell you, Paddy, you can't understand a word of it,' said the priest in a loud tone.

666

Why, then, can't I, your Reverence? I thought I could till now.'

"Oh, Paddy, how could you understand it, when even I myself could not understand it, except by the UNANIMOUS CONSENT OF THE FATHERS, as our fine creed by our Pope Pius says.'

"The Fathers, your Reverence? Wisha, then, who are they? I never heerd of 'em in my life.'

"You never heard of them,' said the priest, and yet you expect to understand that book!'

"Well, your Reverence, tell me who are they?' said Paddy.

"Why, Paddy, there is St. Jerome, and St. Chrysostom, and St. Gregory, and St. Basil, and St. Bernard, and a good many others.'

"And will your Reverence tell me, did they live before or after the Apostles that used to go about with our Lord ? '

"Oh, Paddy, they all lived several hundreds of years after our Lord and his Apostles, but,'

"Oh, I understands your Reverence; I sees how it is; there are all them Fathers, and sure 'tis hard to find 'em all, to ask their consent to read the Bible. But I'll tell your Reverence what's runnin in my head all this time,' said Paddy, opening his Bible, and glancing from Gospel to Gospel,

here I have the Grandfathers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and the rest of 'em; they are oulder, and I know where to find 'em. And now your Reverence will pardon me for asking you, why was the Bible written at all, if it isn't to be read by the people?'

Paddy, 'tis a shame for you,' said the priest, suppressing his anger, and hoping still to reason Paddy out of his heresy before proceeding to extremities with him. 'You ought to know that the Bible was given to the clergy only, that they should find out its meaning, and teach ignorant people like you.'

"Why, then your Reverence,' said Paddy, 'I don't know how that is, for I was readin in the Bible, "These words that I